How to Find the Best Music Teachers in London: A Comprehensive Guide
Finding your private music teacher in London starts here. Explore the different options available for starting music lessons.
Whether you’re looking for a music teacher for a child captivated by the piano, a teenager drawn to the guitar, or for yourself as an adult wanting to rekindle a childhood passion, the path to finding a music teacher in London begins with finding the ideal teacher.
But with so many music teachers in London, navigating the landscape of London music lessons can feel overwhelming.
This guide is for people wanting to find a music teacher but are unsure where to start.
Identifying Your Musical Goals
The first step is to ask yourself some questions.
What are your goals for your music lessons?
Thinking about your goals is an excellent place to start because it helps you to determine the type of teacher you are looking for and the experiences you would like them to have.
Music lessons for kids could be a way for them to pursue a passion outside of the classroom, or perhaps they’re hoping to earn a full music scholarship to an independent school (some can be worth up to £50,000 per year!).
Adult music lessons could be about trying something new, rediscovering a childhood passion, or finding a way to switch off from work.
What genre of music do you want to play?
It’s vital to determine what genre of music you want to play before you begin your Google search. Otherwise, you may end up with a music teacher entirely unsuited to your needs.
If you are looking to work through the ABRSM grades in classical guitar, for example, finding a guitar teacher with 15 years of teaching experience and 20 years of touring experience can sound great. BUT, if they’re self-taught Jazz guitarists, then their style of teaching and experiences may not be suited to your needs.
So, knowing the types of pieces you’d like to play is invaluable for helping you decide the kind of music teacher you are looking for.
Teacher Qualifications & Experiences
The ideal music teacher will possess both accredited credentials and practical teaching experience.
By credentials, we don’t mean an ABRSM Grade 8 certificate. A good music teacher will have graduated from a conservatoire or at least have studied their instrument at university level.
At Prelude Education, we also caution students against finding self-taught teachers.
This is not to say that a self-taught teacher is not a good musician or that a Grade 8 certificate holder can’t play — far from it! They are likely a good musician but — and this is a big BUT — it is likely that their playing ability has not translated over into teaching ability.
And why is this?
This is because formal training at a conservatoire or other higher education institution equips musicians with skills that are nearly impossible to learn alone.
For four years, these musicians will have received one-on-one lessons from the world’s most accomplished musicians. They will have honed razor-sharp technical ability and achieved a deep understanding of theory and form. On top of this, conservatoires nearly always have compulsory classes on teaching.
The most significant risk with self-taught teachers, however, is that they may accidentally teach you bad habits.
You may not notice these habits at first, but as the years progress, you will find yourself limited in your ability to progress and perhaps even prone to injury.
As the director of Prelude Education, I have interviewed enough teachers and spoken to enough families to know that it can take years to unlearn bad habits. It isn’t worth the risk.
Where to Find Music Teachers
London offers a dizzying array of avenues for finding a music teacher, but essentially, there are five methods to finding one.
Online Directories
Platforms like Superprof and Tutorful offer quick ways to browse hundreds of music teacher profiles by location.
Pros
These online directories allow you to control the search process and are often significantly cheaper than other options.
Cons
The problem with online directories is that there is no vetting process — anyone can simply upload their profile. You won’t know if they have the qualifications they say they do, if their testimonials are reliable or if they’ve had a verified background check (Enhanced DBS check or CRB check). As a result, parents often hesitate to trust teachers from online directories with their children.
Time is another consideration when using an online directory. Sifting through hundreds of profiles, interviewing teachers, and trialling teachers can take months. We once even had someone call us who had trialled five piano teachers over three months! We matched them up with an excellent teacher within 24 hours; they haven’t looked back since.
Music Departments at Schools
The first port of call for parents looking for private music lessons is often the music department of their child’s school.
Pros
School lessons tend to be affordable. You can also trust that the teachers are EDBS checked, and you are saved from worrying about scheduling because lessons occur during the school day.
Cons
Perhaps the most obvious con of school music lessons is that your child will miss valuable lesson time in their other subjects. Nowadays, schools tend to rotate music lessons so children don’t miss the same class week on week, but they’re still missing class at the end of the day.
The greatest drawback for a child taking music lessons at school, however, is that they can’t receive lessons during the holidays.
This might not sound too bad at first, but considering that school holidays last 12–20 weeks of the year, that’s 23–38% of the year when students experience immense disruption in their learning with no lessons. This is even more of a problem when you consider that learning an instrument relies so heavily on muscle memory, which can be quickly forgotten!
There is a reason professional musicians cannot go a day without practising or why you may have seen musicians reserve a seat on the plane just for their instrument — practice makes permanent. One teacher even told me, “every week you don’t have a lesson or practice, you move back three weeks.”
The other important consideration is how personalised the school music lessons are to your child. Schools don’t employ 95% of their music teachers but instead have self-employed Visiting Music Teachers who work across multiple schools. It is common for these teachers to have 60+ students, leaving you to wonder, “how much attention is my child actually receiving and does this impact my child’s progress?”
Word of Mouth
Recommendations from families and friends can be a reliable and quick method to find a good music teacher.
Pros
Music teacher recommendations from friends mean the teacher is likely experienced and great at working with children. They will also likely teach other students in your area and so can more easily fit you into their schedule.
Cons
It’s important to remember, however, that a teacher who is suitable for one student is not necessarily good for another.
Equally, you may be recommended a teacher based on personal connection (e.g. friends of friends) rather than based on their competence. And if the lessons do not work out for any reason, you may find yourself in a rather awkward conversation at the school gates…
Tutoring Agencies
London has very reputable academic tutoring agencies, some of which also offer music tuition.
Pros
Finding a music teacher through an academic tutoring agency means that the agency does the work for you, leaving you to go about your usual schedule.
Cons
Regardless of how reputable an academic tutoring agency is, it remains that they’re not music specialists. They’re brilliant at helping your child pass the 7/11/13+ or preparing for a school exam, but their knowledge base is fundamentally academic subject-based, not the arts.
Prelude Education’s staff, for instance, includes an ex-director of music at Eton College and a teacher at the Royal College of Music who know exactly how to support a child’s music educational development.
Music Tutoring Agencies
Music tutoring agencies, like Prelude Education, specialise in connecting music teachers with students, taking the hassle out of your search and offering additional support throughout a child’s learning process.
Cons
Reputable music tutoring agencies in London are more expensive, which understandably puts some families off contacting them.
Pros
In the long term, however, investing in quality music lessons pays off.
With a music tutoring agency, your child can progress faster, learn in a safer environment, and will avoid developing bad habits.
At Prelude Education, for instance, our classical music teachers are the highest-quality in London. They are exclusively graduates of the world’s four leading conservatoires, 56% hold a master’s degree, and have an average of seven years of teaching experience.
Equally, all our teachers are vetted and trusted, giving parents peace of mind. Our rigorous background checks include speaking to the families our teachers have previously worked for, contacting their named professional references, and ensuring all our teachers hold an EDBS check.
Working with a music tutoring agency also offers convenience. They support students of all ages, abilities, and instruments and offer lessons at home, in a studio, or online. Prelude Education also provides each family with a dedicated client manager to help schedule initial lessons, arrange substitute teachers, and compile a detailed monthly progress report on a student’s musical development.
Music tutoring agencies also make personalised student-teacher matches, ensuring lessons hit the right tone from day one and are enjoyable for students.
Conclusion
If you’re hoping to find the best music teacher in London for your lessons, you need to have a clear idea of your goals, an understanding of the qualifications and teaching experience you want your prospective teacher to have, and a method of finding an exceptional music teacher.
For the best music teachers in London, email, call or WhatsApp Prelude Education today to learn more about their private music lessons.
For the best in private music tuition and music scholarship support to independent schools.
